Philips atlas of the universe rev ed p moore (octopus, 2005)

ATLAS OF THE

UNIVERSE
REVISED EDITION

SIR PATRICK MOORE

‘The best introduction to astronomy’
The Journal of the British Astronomical Association


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ATLAS OF THE

UNIVERSE
REVISED EDITION

SIR PATRICK MOORE

FOREWORD BY
PROFESSOR SIR ARNOLD WOLFENDALE, FRS
ASTRONOMER ROYAL 1991-94

Contents
Foreword by
Professor Sir Arnold Wolfendale, FRS
9 Introduction by Sir Patrick Moore
7

10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30

EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE
Astronomy through the Ages
Telescopes and the Stars
Observatories of the World
Great Telescopes
Invisible Astronomy
Rockets into Space
Satellites and Space Probes
Man in Space
Space Stations
The Hubble Space Telescope

First published in 1994
by Philip’s,
a division of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd,
2–4 Heron Quays, London E14 4JP
© 1994, 2003, 2005 Philip’s
This new edition 2005
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13 978-0-540-08791-4
ISBN-10 0-540-08791-2
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair
dealing for the purpose of private
study, research, criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part
of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, electrical, chemical,
mechanical, optical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without prior
written permission. All enquiries
should be addressed to the Publisher.
Printed in Spain
Details of other Philip’s titles and
services can be found on our website at:
www.philips-maps.co.uk

HALF-TITLE PAGE: Star formation is taking

place in the spiral galaxy NGC 6946, also
known as the ‘Fireworks Galaxy’.
OPPOSITE TITLE PAGE: The centre of the
massive galaxy cluster Abell 1689,
photographed by the Hubble Space
Telescope.

32
34
36
38
40
42
44
46
48
50
52
54
56
58
60
62
64
66
68
70
72
74

THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The Sun’s Family
The Earth in the Solar System
The Earth as a Planet
The Earth’s Atmosphere and
Magnetosphere
The Earth–Moon System
Features of the Moon
Lunar Landscapes
The Far Side of the Moon
Missions to the Moon
Clementine and Prospector
The Moon: First Quadrant
The Moon: Second Quadrant
The Moon: Third Quadrant
The Moon: Fourth Quadrant
Movements of the Planets
Mercury
Features of Mercury
Map of Mercury
Venus
Mapping Venus
The Magellan Mission

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78
80
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84
85

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88
89
90
92
94
96
98
100
102
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106
108
110
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116
118
120
122
124
126
128
130
132
134
136
137
138
139

140
142
144
146
148
150

Mars
Missions to Mars
Satellites of Mars
Map of Mars
Hubble Views of Mars
Mars from Global Surveyor
The Search for Life on Mars
The Pathfinder Mission
Spirit and Opportunity
Asteroids
Exceptional Asteroids
Jupiter
The Changing Face of Jupiter
Missions to Jupiter
Impacts on Jupiter
Satellites of Jupiter
The Galilean Satellites –from Galileo
Maps of Jupiter’s Satellites
Saturn
Rings of Saturn
Details of Saturn’s Rings
Missions to Saturn
Satellites of Saturn

Maps of Saturn’s Icy Satellites
Titan
Uranus
Missions to Uranus
Satellites of Uranus
Maps of the Satellites of Uranus
Neptune
Satellites of Neptune
Pluto
The Surface of Pluto
Boundaries of the Solar System
Comets
Short-period Comets
Halley’s Comet
Great Comets
Millennium Comets
Meteors
Meteorites
Meteorite Craters


152
154
156
158
160
162

THE SUN
Our Star: the Sun

The Surface of the Sun
The Solar Spectrum
Eclipses of the Sun
The Sun in Action

210
212
214
216
218
220
222
224
226
228
230
232

164
166
168
170
172
174
176
178
180
182
184
186

188
190

THE STARS
Introduction to the Stars
The Celestial Sphere
Distances and Movement of the Stars
Different Types of Stars
The Lives of the Stars
Double Stars
Variable Stars
Novae
Supernovae
Black Holes
Stellar Clusters
Nebulae
Views from the Very Large Telescope

234
236
238
240
242

Á

Ë˙ Ò ·
Á

Î

PISCES
Ê
¯
„ „

Ë
M2

ı

AQUILA

‚
Ï

È

ı

2

1

È
2

AQUARIUS

CAPRICORNUS

‰ Á È

‚

Â

98
88

NGC 7293

M72

7009

È

‰

99

·
·
‚
1

2

2

Ù

1

ˆ ˆ
R

M30

ı

36
˙
24

PISCIS AUSTRALIS
Â

„
ˆ

· Fomalhaut
SCULPTOR

‰ Á ‚

Ù
Ì

È

Á

244
246
248

256

258
260

THE UNIVERSE
The Structure of the Universe
Our Galaxy
The Local Group of Galaxies
The Outer Galaxies
Quasars
The Expanding Universe
The Early Universe
Life in the Universe

Whole Sky Maps
Seasonal Charts: North
Seasonal Charts: South
Ursa Major, Canes Venatici, Leo Minor
Ursa Minor, Draco
Cassiopeia, Cepheus,
Camelopardalis, Lacerta
Boötes, Corona Borealis, Coma Berenices
Leo, Cancer, Sextans

Virgo, Libra
Hydra, Corvus, Crater
Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila, Scutum,
Sagitta, Vulpecula, Delphinus, Equuleus
Hercules
Ophiuchus, Serpens
Scorpius, Sagittarius, Corona Australis
Andromeda, Triangulum, Aries, Perseus
Pegasus, Pisces
Ï

250
252
254

192
194
196
198
200
202
204
206
208

STAR MAPS

262
264
266

268
270
280
288

MICROSCOPIUM

Capricornus, Aquarius, Piscis Australis
Cetus, Eridanus (northern), Fornax
Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor,
Monoceros, Lepus, Columba
Taurus, Gemini
Auriga, Lynx
Carina, Vela, Pyxis, Antlia, Pictor,
Volans, Puppis
Centaurus, Crux Australis,
Triangulum Australe, Circinus,
Ara, Telescopium, Norma, Lupus
Grus, Phoenix, Tucana, Pavo, Indus,
Microscopium, Sculptor
Eridanus (southern), Horologium, Caelum,
Dorado, Reticulum, Hydrus, Mensa,
Chamaeleon, Musca, Apus, Octans

THE PRACTICAL ASTRONOMER
The Beginner’s Guide to the Sky
Choosing a Telescope
Home Observatories
Glossary
Index

Acknowledgements


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Exploring
the
Universe

᭣ Space walk: Michael
Gernhardt during his
extravehicular activity on
16 September 1995. Space
Shuttle Endeavour can be
seen reflected in his visor.
Gernhardt is attached to the
Shuttle’s remote manipulator
system. The cube that can be
seen towards the right
monitors the temperature.

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ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE

Astronomy through the Ages
is certainly the oldest of all the sciences.
Aupstronomy
Our remote cave-dwelling ancestors must have looked
into the sky and marvelled at what they saw there, but

▲ Copernicus – the
Latinized name of Mikol´aj
Kopernik, the Polish
churchman whose book,
De Revolutionibus Orbium
Coelestium, published in
1543, revived the theory that
the Earth is a planet moving
round the Sun.

▲ Galileo Galilei, the pioneer
telescopic observer, was also
the real founder of the science
of experimental mechanics.
He lived from 1564 to 1642; in
1633 he was brought to trial,
and condemned for daring to
teach the Copernican theory.
The Church finally pardoned
him – in 1992!

▲ Isaac Newton (1643–1727),
whose book the Principia,

published in 1687, has been
described as the ‘greatest
mental effort ever made by
one man’, and marked the
true beginning of the
modern phase of astronomy.

12

they can have had no idea what the universe is really like,
or how vast it is. It was natural for them to believe that the
Earth is flat, with the sky revolving round it once a day
carrying the Sun, the Moon and the stars.
Early civilizations in China, Egypt and the Middle
East divided the stars up into groups or constellations,
and recorded spectacular phenomena such as comets and
eclipses; a Chinese observation of a conjunction of five
bright planets may date back as far as 2449 BC. Probably
the earliest reasonably good calendars were drawn up
by the Egyptians. They paid great attention to the star
Sirius (which they called Sothis), because its ‘heliacal
rising’, or date when it could first be seen in the dawn
sky, gave a reliable clue as to the annual flooding of the
Nile, upon which the whole Egyptian economy depended.
And, of course, there is no doubt that the Pyramids are
astronomically aligned.
The first really major advances came with the Greeks.
The first of the great philosophers, Thales of Miletus, was
born around 624 BC. A clear distinction was drawn
between the stars, which seem to stay in the same positions relative to each other, and the ‘wanderers’ or planets, which shift slowly about from one constellation to

another. Aristotle, who lived from around 384 to 325 BC,
gave the first practical proofs that the Earth is a globe, and
in 270 BC Eratosthenes of Cyrene measured the size of the
globe with remarkable accuracy. The value he gave was
much better than that used by Christopher Columbus on
his voyage of discovery so many centuries later.
The next step would have been to relegate the Earth
to the status of a mere planet, moving round the Sun in
a period of one year. Around 280 BC one philosopher,
Aristarchus of Samos, was bold enough to champion this
idea, but he could give no firm proof, and found few
supporters. The later Greeks went back to the theory of a

central Earth. Ptolemy of Alexandria, last of the great
astronomers of Classical times, brought the Earth-centred
theory to its highest state of perfection. He maintained
that all paths or orbits must be circular, because the circle
is the ‘perfect’ form, but to account for the observed
movements of the planets he was forced to develop a very
cumbersome system; a planet moved in a small circle or
epicycle, the centre of which – the deferent – itself moved
round the Earth in a perfect circle. Fortunately, Ptolemy’s
great work, the Almagest, has come down to us by way of
its Arab translation.
Ptolemy died in or about the year AD 180. There
followed a long period of stagnation, though there was
one important development; in AD 570 Isidorus, Bishop of
Seville, was the first to distinguish between true astronomy
and the pseudo-science of astrology (which still survives,
even though no intelligent person can take it seriously).

The revival of astronomy at the end of the Dark Ages
was due to the Arabs. In 813 Al Ma’mun founded the
Baghdad school, and during the next few centuries excellent star catalogues were drawn up. In 1433 Ulugh Beigh,
grandson of the Oriental conqueror Tamerlane, set up an
elaborate observatory at Samarkand, but with his murder,
in 1449, the Baghdad school of astronomy came to an end.
The first serious challenge to the Ptolemaic theory
came in 1543 with the publication of a book by the Polish
churchman Mikol´aj Kopernik, better known by his
Latinized name Copernicus. He realized the clumsiness
and artificial nature of the old theory could be removed
simply by taking the Earth away from its proud central
position and putting the Sun there. He also knew there
would be violent opposition from the Church, and he was
wise enough to withhold publication of his book until the
end of his life. His fears were well founded; Copernican
theory was condemned as heresy, and Copernicus’ book,
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (Concerning the
Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs) was placed on the
Papal Index. It remained there until 1835.

᭣ An orrery, made in 1790;
the name commemorates
the Earl of Cork and Orrery,
for whom the first orrery
was made. The Sun is
represented by a brass ball
in the centre. Around it
move the three innermost
planets, Mercury, Venus

and the Earth; an ingenious
system of gears makes the
planets move round the
Sun in the correct relative
periods, though not at the
correct relative distances.
The Moon’s orbit round
the Earth is inclined at the
correct angle. When the
mechanism is moved, by
turning a handle, the planets
revolve round the Sun and
the Moon revolves round
the Earth. The Zodiacal signs
are shown around the edge
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EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE

Ironically, the next character in the story, the Danish
astronomer Tycho Brahe, was no Copernican. He believed

in a central Earth, but he was a superbly accurate observer
who produced a star catalogue which was much better
than anything compiled before. He also measured the
positions of the planets, particularly Mars. When he died,
in 1601, his work came into the possession of his last
assistant, the German mathematician Johannes Kepler.
Kepler had implicit faith in Tycho’s observations, and
used them to show that the Earth and the planets do indeed
move round the Sun – not in circles, but in ellipses.
Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion may be said to
mark the beginning of modern-type astronomy. The first
two Laws were published in 1609, though the change in
outlook was not really complete until the publication of
Isaac Newton’s Principia almost 80 years later. Meanwhile, the first telescopes had been turned towards the sky.

᭣ Stonehenge is probably
the most famous of all
‘stone circles’. It stands
on Salisbury Plain, and
is a well-known tourist
attraction! Contrary to
popular belief, it has
nothing to do with the
Druids; its precise function
is still a matter for debate,
but it is certainly aligned
astronomically. It has, of
course, been partially
ruined, but enough remains
to show what it must

originally have looked like.
᭣ The Ptolemaic theory –
the Earth lies in the centre
of the universe, with the
Sun, Moon, planets and stars
moving round it in circular
orbits. Ptolemy assumed that
each planet moved in a small
circle or epicycle, the centre
of which – the deferent –
itself moved round the Earth
in a perfect circle.
᭤ The Copernican theory
– placing the Sun in the
centre removed many of the
difficulties of the Ptolemaic
theory, but Copernicus kept
the idea of circular orbits,
and was even reduced to
bringing back epicycles.

▲ The Tychonic theory –
Tycho Brahe retained the
Earth in the central position,
but assumed that the other
planets moved round the
Sun. In effect this was a
rather uneasy compromise,
which convinced

comparatively few people.
Tycho adopted it because
although he realized that the
Ptolemaic theory was
unsatisfactory, he could not
bring himself to believe that
the Earth was anything but
of supreme importance.

▲ Kepler’s Laws:
Law 1 A planet moves in an
ellipse; the Sun is one focus,
while the other is empty.
Law 2 The radius vector –
the line joining the centre of
the planet to that of the Sun
– sweeps out equal areas in

equal times (a planet moves
fastest when closest in).
Law 3 For any planet, the
square of the revolution
period (p) is proportional
to the cube of the planet’s
mean distance from the Sun
(a). Once the distance of any

planet is known, its period
can be calculated, or vice
versa. Kepler‘s Laws make it

possible to draw up a scale
model of the Solar System;
only one absolute distance
has to be known, and the
rest can then be calculated.

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ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE

Te l e s c o p e s a n d t h e S t a r s
obody can be sure just when telescopes were invented,
NEngland,
but there is strong evidence that Leonard Digges, in
built a workable telescope in or around the year
Object-glass

᭤ Principle of the refractor.
The light from the object
under observation passes
through a glass lens (or

combination of lenses),
known as an object-glass
or objective. The rays are
brought to a focus, where
the image is enlarged by a
second lens, known as the
eyepiece or ocular.

Eyepiece

Mirror

Eyepiece

᭤ Principle of the Newtonian
reflector. The light passes
down an open tube and falls
upon a curved mirror. The
light is then sent back up
the tube on to a smaller, flat
mirror placed at an angle of
45°; the flat directs the rays
on to the side of the tube,
where they are brought to
focus and the image is
magnified by an eyepiece.

Curved
mirror

Eyepiece

Horizontal
axis

Vertical
axis

14

1550. Apparently it used both a lens and a mirror; we do
not know exactly what it looked like, and there is no firm
evidence that it was ever turned skywards.
The first telescopes of which we have definite
knowledge date back to 1608, and came from Holland.
During 1609 Thomas Harriot, one-time tutor to Sir Walter
Raleigh, drew a telescopic map of the Moon which shows
recognizable features, but the first systematic observations
were made from 1610 by Galileo Galilei, in Italy. Galileo
made his own telescopes, the most powerful of which
magnified 30 times, and used them to make spectacular
discoveries; he saw the mountains and craters of the
Moon, the phases of Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, spots
on the Sun and the countless stars of the Milky Way.
Everything he found confirmed his belief that Copernicus
had been absolutely right in positioning the Sun in the
centre of the planetary system – for which he was accused
of heresy, brought to trial in Rome, and forced into a
hollow and completely meaningless recantation of the
Copernican theory.

These early 17th-century telescopes were refractors.
The light is collected by a glass lens known as an objective or object-glass; the rays of light are brought together,
and an image is formed at the focus, where it can be magnified by a second lens termed an eyepiece.
Light is a wave-motion, and a beam of white light is a
mixture of all the colours of the rainbow. A lens bends the
different wavelengths unequally, and this results in false
colour; an object such as a star is surrounded by gaudy
rings which may look pretty, but are certainly unwanted.
To reduce this false colour, early refractors were made
with very long focal length, so that it was sometimes necessary to fix the object-glass to a mast. Instruments of this
kind were extremely awkward to use, and it is surprising
that so many discoveries were made with them. A modern
objective is made up of several lenses, fitted together and
made up of different types of glass, the faults of which
tend to cancel each other out.
Isaac Newton adopted a different system, and in 1671
he presented the first reflector to the Royal Society of
London. Here there is no object-glass; the light passes
down an open tube and falls upon a curved mirror, which
reflects the light back up the tube on to a smaller, flat
mirror inclined at 45 degrees. The inclined mirror reflects

᭣ The altazimuth mounting.
The telescope can move
freely in either altitude (up
and down) or azimuth (east to
west). This involves making
constant adjustments in both
senses, though today modern
computers make altazimuth

mountings practicable for
very large telescopes.
᭤ The equatorial mounting.
The telescope is mounted
upon an axis directed towards
the celestial pole, so that
when the telescope is moved
in azimuth the up-or-down
motion looks after itself. Until
recently all large telescopes
were equatorially mounted.

Eyepiece
Polar
axis

Declination
axis

German
mount


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EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE

the light to the side of the tube, where an image is formed
and enlarged by an eyepiece as before. A mirror reflects
all wavelengths equally, so that there is no false colour
problem. Newtonian reflectors are still very popular,
particularly with amateur astronomers, but there are other
optical systems such as the Cassegrain and the Gregorian,
where the light is reflected back to the eyepiece through a
hole in the centre of the main mirror.
Newton’s first reflector used a mirror only 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) in diameter, but before long larger
telescopes were made. In 1789 William Herschel, a
Hanoverian-born musician who lived in England, built a
reflector with a 124.5-centimetre (49-inch) mirror, though
most of his work was carried out with much smaller
instruments. Then, in 1845, came the giant 183-centimetre
(72-inch) reflector made in Ireland by the third Earl of
Rosse, who discovered the spiral forms of the star systems
we now call galaxies. The Rosse reflector remained the
world’s largest until the completion of the Mount Wilson
2.5-metre (100-inch) reflector in 1917.
Admittedly the Rosse telescope was clumsy to use,
because it was slung between two massive stone walls
and could reach only a limited portion of the sky.
Moreover, a celestial object moves across the sky, by
virtue of the Earth’s rotation, and the telescope has to
follow it, which is not easy when high magnification is
being used. In 1824 the German optician Josef Fraunhofer
built a 23-centimetre (9-inch) refractor which was mechanically driven and was set up on an equatorial mount, so

that the telescope rides the axis pointing to the pole of the
sky; only the east-to-west motion has to be considered,
because the up-or-down movement will look after itself.
Until the development of modern-type computers, all
large telescopes were equatorially mounted.
The late 19th century was the age of the great refractors, of which the largest, at the Yerkes Observatory in
Wisconsin, USA was completed in 1897. The telescope
has a 1-metre (40-inch) object-glass, and is still in regular
use. It is not likely to be surpassed, because a lens has
to be supported round its edge, and if it is too heavy it
will start to distort under its own weight, making it useless. Today almost all large optical telescopes are of the
reflecting type, and are used with photographic or electronic equipment. It is not often that a professional
astronomer actually looks through an eyepiece these
days. The modern astronomer observes the skies on a
computer or TV screen.
᭤ The Rosse reflector.
This telescope was built by
the third Earl of Rosse, and
completed in 1845. It had a
183-cm (72-inch) metal
mirror; the tube was mounted
between two massive stone
walls, so that it could be
swung for only a limited
distance to either side of
the meridian. This imposed
obvious limitations;
nevertheless, Lord Rosse used
it to make some spectacular
discoveries, such as the spiral

forms of the galaxies. The
telescope has now been fully
restored, and by 2001 was
again fully operational. This
photograph was taken in 1997.

▲ Herschel’s ‘forty-foot’
reflector was completed in
1789. The mirror was 124 cm
(49 inches) in diameter, and
was made of metal; there
was of course no drive, and
the mounting was decidedly
cumbersome. The optical
system used was the
Herschelian; there is no flat,
and the main mirror is tilted
so as to bring the rays of
light directly to focus at the
upper edge of the tube – a
system which is basically
unsatisfactory.

▲ The Yerkes refractor.
This has a 101-cm (40-inch)
object-glass. It was
completed in 1897, due to
the work of George Ellery
Hale, and remains the largest

refractor in the world; it is
not likely that it will ever be
surpassed, because a lens
has to be supported round
its edge, and if too heavy will
distort, making it useless.

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ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE

Obser vatories of the World
᭤ Observatory sites. There
are major observatories
in all inhabited continents.
The modern tendency
is to establish large new
observatories in the southern
hemisphere, partly because
of the clearer skies and partly
because some of the most

significant objects lie in the
far south of the sky.

Earth’s atmosphere which is the main enemy of
Ialsottheis the
astronomer. Not only is it dirty and unsteady, but it
blocks out some of the most important radiations

▼ Domes on Mauna Kea.
Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, is an
extinct volcano over 4000 m
(14,000 feet) high. On its
summit several large
telescopes have been erected.
One of the most recent,
Gemini North, is seen in the
foreground. The main

advantage of the site is the
thinness of the atmosphere,
and the fact that most of the
atmospheric water vapour lies
below. The main disadvantage
is that one’s lungs take in less
than 39 per cent of the normal
amount of oxygen, and care
must be taken.

coming from space. This is why most modern observatories are sited at high altitude, often on the tops of
mountains, where the air is thin and dry.

Of course, this is not always possible. For example
there are no high peaks in Australia, and the observatory
at Siding Spring, near Coonabarabran in New South
Wales, lies at an altitude of less than 1150 metres
(3800 feet), though this does at least mean that it is easily
accessible (provided that one avoids driving into the kangaroos which roam the Warrumbungle range; the animals
have absolutely no road sense!). Another modern hazard is
light pollution, which is increasing all the time. The
Hooker reflector at Mount Wilson in California was actually mothballed for some years during the 1980s because
of the lights of Los Angeles, and even the great Palomar
reflector, also in California, is threatened to some extent.
Another indifferent site is Mount Pastukhov, where the
Russians have erected a 6-metre (236-inch) reflector. The
altitude is just over 2000 metres (6600 feet) but conditions

▼ Dome of the William
Herschel telescope at La
Palma. It has a 4.2-m
(165-inch) mirror. It is sited
on the summit of Los
Muchachos, an extinct
volcano in the Canary
Islands, at an altitude of
2332 m (7648 feet). The Isaac
Newton Telescope is also on
Los Muchachos; it has a
256-cm (101-inch) mirror,
and was transferred to La
Palma in 1983.

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are not very good, and the site was selected only because
there are no really favourable locations in the old USSR.
Against this, the mountain observatories are spectacular by any standards. The loftiest of all is the summit
of Mauna Kea, the extinct volcano in Hawaii, at well over
4000 metres (13,800 feet). At this height one’s lungs take
in only 39 per cent of the normal amount of oxygen, and
care is essential; nobody actually sleeps at the summit,
and after a night’s observing the astronomers drive down
to the ‘halfway house’, Hale Pohaku, where the air is
much denser. There are now many telescopes on Mauna
Kea, and others are planned. Almost equally awe-inspiring is the top of the Roque de los Muchachos (the Rock of
the Boys), at La Palma in the Canary Islands. The altitude
is 2332 metres (7648 feet), and it is here that we find
the largest British telescope, the 4.2-metre (165-inch)
William Herschel reflector. The ‘Rock’ is truly international; La Palma is a Spanish island, but there are observatories not only from Britain but also from Scandinavia,
Germany, Italy and other countries. Another superb site is
the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile, where there are

four major observatories: La Silla (run by the European

Southern Observatory), Cerro Tololo and Las Campanas
(run by the United States), and the new observatory for
the VLT or Very Large Telescope, at Cerro Paranal in
the northern Atacama. The VLT has four 8.2-metre
(323-inch) mirrors working together; the mirrors are
named Antu, Kueyen, Yepun and Melipal. They can also
be used separately.
A modern observatory has to be almost a city in itself,
with laboratories, engineering and electronic workshops,
living quarters, kitchens and much else. Yet today there
is a new development. Telescopes can be operated by
remote control, so that the astronomer need not be in the
observatory at all – or even in the same continent. For
example, it is quite practicable to sit in a control room
in Cambridge and operate a telescope thousands of kilometres away in Chile or Hawaii.
Observatories are now world-wide. There is even an
observatory at the South Pole, where viewing conditions
are excellent even though the climate is somewhat daunting. The AST/RO (Antarctic Submillimetre Telescope
and Remote Observatory) is in constant use; AST/RO has
an aperture of 67 inches (1.7 metres).

᭢ Antarctic Submillimetre
Telescope and Remote
Observatory AST/RO, at the
South Pole, where conditions
for this kind of research are
exceptionally good.

᭣ Kitt Peak, Arizona. Kitt
Peak is the US national
research facility for groundbased optical astronomy. Its
largest optical telescope,
seen at top right, is the
Mayall reflector, with a
3.81-m (150-inch) mirror;
the altitude is 2064 m
(6770 feet). The triangular
building in the foreground is
the McMath–Pierce Solar
Facility, the world’s largest
solar telescope.

▲ Dome of the Palomar
5.08-m (200-inch) reflector.
The Hale reflector was
brought into action in 1948,
and was for many years in
a class of its own. Though
it is no longer the world’s

largest, it maintains its
position in the forefront of
research, and is now used
with electronic equipment,
so that it is actually far more
effective than it was when
first completed.

17


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ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE

G r e a t Te l e s c o p e s

▲ The New Technology
Telescope (NTT) at La Silla.
The NTT, at the site of
the European Southern
Observatory, has a mirror
3.5 m (138 inches) in
diameter. The telescope
is of very advanced design;
it moves only in altitude,
and the entire observatory
rotates. New techniques
such as active and adaptive
optics have been introduced,
and the NTT has proved to
be extremely successful.

It was completed in 1989.

18

many years the Mount Wilson 2.5-metre (100-inch)
Fbutorreflector
was not only the world’s largest telescope,
was in a class of its own. It was set up through the
untiring energy of George Ellery Hale, an American
astronomer who not only planned huge telescopes but also
had the happy knack of persuading friendly millionaires
to pay for them! Hale had already been responsible for the
Yerkes refractor; later he planned the 5-metre (200-inch)
Palomar reflector, though he died before the telescope
was completed in 1948. The Palomar telescope is still in
full operation, and is indeed more effective than it used
to be, because it is now used with the latest electronic
equipment. What is termed a CCD, or Charge-Coupled
Device, is far more sensitive than any photographic plate.
In 1975 the Russians completed an even larger
telescope, with a 6-metre (236-inch) mirror, but it has
never been a success, and is important mainly because
of its mounting, which is of the altazimuth type. With an
altazimuth, the telescope can move freely in either direction – up or down (altitude) or east to west (azimuth).
This means using two driving mechanisms instead of only
one, as with an equatorial, but this is easy enough with the
latest computers, and in all other respects an altazimuth
mounting is far more convenient. All future large telescopes will be mounted in this way.
The New Technology Telescope (NTT), at La Silla in
Chile, looks very different from the Palomar reflector. It

is short and squat, with a 3.5-metre (138-inch) mirror
which is only 24 centimetres (10 inches) thick and weighs
6 tonnes (13,440 pounds). Swinging a large mirror around
means distorting it, and with the NTT two systems are
used to compensate for this. The first is termed ‘active

optics’, and involves altering the shape of the mirror so
that it always retains its perfect curve; this is done by
computer-controlled pads behind the mirror. With
‘adaptive optics’ an extra computer-controlled mirror is
inserted in the telescope, in front of a light-sensitive
detector. By monitoring the image of a relatively bright
star in the field of view, the mirror can be continuously
modified to compensate for distortions in the image due
to air turbulence.
The VLT or Very Large Telescope, at Cerro Paranal
in the northern Atacama Desert of Chile, is operated by
the European Southern Observatory. It has four 8.2-metre
(323-inch) mirrors working together. The first two were
operational by mid-1999, and the other two in 2001.
The Keck Telescope on Mauna Kea has a 9.8-metre
(387-inch) mirror which has been made from 36
hexagonal segments, fitted together to form the correct
optical curve; the final shape has to be accurate to a limit
of one thousandth the width of a human hair. A twin
Keck has been built beside it, and when the two telescopes are operating together they could, in theory, be
capable of distinguishing a car’s headlights separately
from a distance of over 25,000 kilometres (over 15,000
miles).
Some telescopes have been constructed to meet

special needs. With a Schmidt telescope, the main advantage is a very wide field of view, so that large areas of
the sky can be photographed with a single exposure; the
United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT) on
Mauna Kea was designed to collect long-wavelength
(infra-red) radiations, though in fact it has proved to be so
good that it can be used at normal wavelengths as well.


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EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE

᭣ VLT Kueyen, the second
unit of the VLT (Very Large
Telescope). The VLT, at
Paranal in Chile, is much the
most powerful telescope
ever built. It has four
8.2-metre (323-inch) mirrors,
working together, named
Antu (the Sun), Kueyen
(Moon), Melipal (Southern
Cross) and Yepun (Sirius).
Kueyen, shown here, came

into operation in 1999,
following Antu in 1998.
These names come from the
Mapuche language of the
people of Chile south of
Santiago.

᭣ Very Large Telescope
(VLT). Shown here are
(from left to right) Antu,
Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun.
Working together as an
interferometer, these
instruments deliver
resolution equivalent to that
of a single 16-m (624-inch)
telescope.

THE WORLD’S LARGEST TELESCOPES
Telescopes

Observatory
m

Aperture
in

Lat.

Long.

Elev., Completed
m

387
387
362
327
323
323
323
323
315
315
256
236
200
165
158
153
150
150
141
141
138
138
138
138
138
138

120
118
118
107
106
104
104
101
100
100
100
100
94

19° 49’ N
19° 49’ N
30° 40’ N
19° 50’ N
24° 38’ S
24° 38’ S
24° 38’ S
24° 38’ S
19° 50’ N
39° 33’ S
31° 04’ N
43° 39’ N
33° 21’ N
28° 46’ N
30° 10’ S
31° 17’ S

31° 58’ N
19° 50’ N
19° 49’ N
29° 16’ S
37° 13’ N
29° 16’ S
32° 47’ N
31° 57’ N
classified
28° 45’ N
37° 21’ N
32° 59’ N
19° 50’ N
30° 40’ N
49° 07’ N
44° 44’ N
40° 20’ N
28° 45’ N
29° 00’ N
34° 13’ N
28° 46’ N
32° 47’ N
orbital

155° 28’ W
155° 28’ W
101° 01’ W
155° 28’ W
70° 24’ W
70° 24’ W

70° 24’ W
70° 24’ W
155° 28’ W
70° 98’ W
110° 53’ W
41° 26’ E
116° 52’ W
17° 53’ W
70° 49’ W
149° 04’ E
111° 36’ W
155° 28’ W
155° 28’ W
70° 44’ W
02° 32’ W
70° 44’ W
105° 49’ W
111° 37’ W
classified
17° 53’ W
121° 38’ W
105° 44’ W
155° 28’ W
104° 01’ W
122° 35’ W
34° 00’ E
44° 18’ E
17° 53’ W
70° 42’ W
118° 03’ W

17° 53’ W
105° 49’ W
orbital

4150
4150
2072
4100
2635
2635
2635
2635
4100
2737
2608
2100
1706
2332
2215
1149
2120
4194
4200
2387
2168
2353
2800
2100
1900
2370

1290
2758
4208
2075
50
550
1500
2382
2282
1742
2336
2788

1992
1996
1998
1999
1998
1999
2000
2001
1999
2002
1999
1975
1948
1987
1976
1975
1973

1978
1979
1977
1984
1989
1993
1998
1998
1998
1959
1999
1979
1969
1992
1960
1976
1989
1976
1917
1984
1999
1990

REFLECTORS
Keck I
Keck II
Hobby-Eberly Telescope
Subaru Telescope
Antu (first unit of VLT)
Kueyen (second unit of VLT)

Melipal (third unit of VLT)
Yepun (fourth unit of VLT)
Gemini North (Frederick C. Gillett Telescope)
Gemini South
Mono-Mirror Telescope
Bolshoi Teleskop Azimutalnyi
Hale Telescope
William Herschel Telescope
Victor Blanco Telescope
Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT)
Nicholas U. Mayall Reflector
United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT)
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFH)
3.6-m Telescope
3.5-m Telescope
New Technology Telescope (NTT)
Astrophys. Research Consortium (ARC)
WIYN
Starfire
Galileo
C. Donald Shane Telescope
Nodo (liquid mirror)
NASA Infra-Red Facility (IRTF)
Harlan Smith Telescope
UBC-Laval Telescope (LMT)
Shajn 2.6-m Reflector
Byurakan 2.6-m Reflector
Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT)
Irénée du Pont Telescope
Hooker Telescope (100 inch)

Isaac Newton Telescope (INT)
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

W. M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA
9.82
W. M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA
9.82
Mt Fowlkes, Texas, USA
9.2
Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA
8.3
Cerro Paranal, Chile
8.2
Cerro Paranal, Chile
8.2
Cerro Paranal, Chile
8.2
Cerro Paranal, Chile
8.2
Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA
8.0
Cerro Pachón, Chile
8.0
Mount Hopkins Observatory, Arizona, USA
6.5
Special Astrophysical Observatory, Mt Pastukhov, Russia
6.0
Palomar Observatory, Palomar Mtn, California, USA
5.08

Obs. del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Canary Is
4.2
Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, Chile
4.001
Anglo-Australian Telescope Siding Spring, Australia
3.893
Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona, USA
3.81
Joint Astronomy Centre, Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA
3.802
Canada-France-Hawaii Tel. Corp., Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA 3.58
European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile
3.57
Calar Alto Observatory, Calar Alto, Spain
3.5
European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile
3.5
Apache Point, New Mexico, USA
3.5
Kitt Peak, Arizona, USA
3.5
Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, USA
3.5
La Palma, Canary Islands
3.5
Lick Observatory, Mt Hamilton, California, USA
3.05
New Mexico, USA
3.0
Mauna Kea Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA

3.0
McDonald Observatory, Mt Locke, Texas, USA
2.72
Univ. of Brit. Col. and Laval Univ., Vancouver, Canada
2.7
Crimean Astrophys. Observatory, Crimea, Ukraine
2.64
Byurakan Observatory, Mt Aragatz, Armenia
2.64
Obs. del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Canary Is
2.56
Las Campanas Observatory, Las Campanas, Chile
2.54
Mount Wilson Observatory, California, USA
2.5
Obs. del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Canary Is
2.5
Apache Point, New Mexico, USA
2.5
Space Telescope Science Inst., Baltimore, USA
2.4

REFRACTORS
Yerkes 40-inch Telescope
36-inch Refractor
33-inch Meudon Refractor
Potsdam Refractor
Thaw Refractor
Lunette Bischoffscheim

Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA
Lick Observatory, Mt Hamilton, California, USA
Paris Observatory, Meudon, France
Potsdam Observatory, Germany
Allegheny Observatory, Pittsburgh, USA
Nice Observatory, France

1.01
0.89
0.83
0.8
0.76
0.74

40
35
33
31
30
29

42° 34’ N
37° 20’ N
48° 48’ N
52° 23’ N
40° 29’ N
43° 43’ N

88° 33’ W
121° 39’ W

02° 14’ E
13° 04’ E
80° 01’ W
07° 18’ E

334
1290
162
107
380
372

1897
1888
1889
1899
1985
1886

SCHMIDT TELESCOPES
2-m Telescope
Oschin 48-inch Telescope
United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope (UKS)
Kiso Schmidt Telescope
3TA-10 Schmidt Telescope
Kvistaberg Schmidt Telescope
ESO 1-m Schmidt Telescope
Venezuela 1-m Schmidt Telescope

Karl Schwarzschild Observatory,Tautenberg, Germany

Palomar Observatory, California , USA
Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Siding Spring, Australia
Kiso Observatory, Kiso, Japan
Byurakan Astrophys. Observatory, Mt Aragatz, Armenia
Uppsala University Observatory, Kvistaberg, Sweden
European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile
Centro F. J. Duarte, Merida, Venezuela

1.34
1.24
1.24
1.05
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00

53
49
49
41
39
39
39
39

50° 59’ N
33° 21’ S
31° 16’ S
35° 48’ N

40° 20’ N
59° 30’ N
29° 15’ S
08° 47’ N

11° 43’ E
116° 51’ W
149° 04’ E
137° 38’ E
44° 30’ E
17° 36’ E
70° 44’ W
70° 52’ W

331
1706
1145
1130
1450
33
2318
3610

1950
1948
1973
1975
1961
1963
1972

1978

19


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ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE

Invisible Astronomy
he colour of light depends upon its wavelength – that
Tcrests.
is to say, the distance between two successive waveRed light has the longest wavelength and violet the

▼ Antarctic Submillimetre
Telescope, at the
Amundsen-Scott South Pole
Station. The extremely cold
and dry conditions are ideal
for observations at
submillimetre wavelengths.

᭤ The Lovell Telescope.
This 76-m (250-foot ) ‘dish’

at Jodrell Bank, in Cheshire,
UK, was the first really large
radio telescope; it has now
been named in honour of
Professor Sir Bernard Lovell,
who master-minded it. It
came into use in 1957 – just
in time to track Russia’s
Sputnik 1, though this was
not the sort of research for
which it was designed! It
has been ‘upgraded’ several
times. The latest upgrade
was in 2002; the telescope
was given a new galvanized
steel surface and a more
accurate pointing system.
Each of the 340 panes
making up the surface was
adjusted to make the whole
surface follow the optimum
parabolic shape to an
accuracy of less than 2 mm;
the frequency range of the
telescope was quadrupled.
The telescope is frequently
linked with telescopes
abroad to obtain very high
resolution observations.

20

shortest; in between come all the colours of the rainbow –
orange, yellow, green and blue. By everyday standards
the wavelengths are very short, and we have to introduce
less familiar units. One is the Ångström (Å), named in
honour of the 19th-century Swedish physicist Anders
Ångström; the founder of modern spectroscopy, one Å is
equal to one ten-thousand millionth of a metre. The other
common unit is the nanometre (nm). This is equal to one
thousand millionth of a metre, so that 1 nanometre is
equivalent to 10 Ångströms.
Visible light extends from 400 nm or 4000 Å for
violet up to 700 nm or 7000 Å for red (these values are
only approximate; some people have greater sensitivity
than others). If the wavelength is outside these limits, the
radiations cannot be seen, though they can be detected
in other ways; for example, if you switch on an electric
fire you will feel the infra-red, in the form of heat, well
before the bars become hot enough to glow. To the longwave end of the total range of wavelengths, or electromagnetic spectrum, we have infra-red (700 nanometres
to 1 millimetre), microwaves (1 millimetre to 0.3 metre)
and then radio waves (longer than 0.3 metre). To the
short-wave end we have ultra-violet (400 nanometres to
10 nanometres), X-rays (10 nanometres to 0.01 nanometre)
and finally the very short gamma rays (below 0.01
nanometre). Note that what are called cosmic rays are
not rays at all; they are high-speed sub-atomic particles
coming from outer space.
Initially, astronomers had to depend solely upon visible light, so that they were rather in the position of a
pianist trying to play a waltz on a piano which lacks all

its notes except for a few in the middle octave. Things
are very different now; we can study the whole range of
wavelengths, and what may be called ‘invisible astronomy’
has become of the utmost importance.
Radio telescopes came first. In 1931 Karl Jansky, an
American radio engineer of Czech descent, was using a
home-made aerial to study radio background ‘static’
when he found that he was picking up radiations from the
Milky Way. After the end of the war Britain took the lead,
and Sir Bernard Lovell master-minded the great radio

᭤ UKIRT. The United
Kingdom Infra-Red
Telescope, on the summit
of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
It has a 3.8-m (150-inch)
mirror. UKIRT proved to
be so good that it can also
be used for ordinary optical
work, which was sheer
bonus.

▼ The Arecibo Telescope.
The largest dish radio
telescope in the world, it was
completed in 1963; the dish
is 304.8 m (approximately
1000 feet) in diameter.
However, it is not steerable;
though its equipment means

that it can survey wide areas
of the sky.


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EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE

telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire; it is a ‘dish’, 76
metres (250 feet) across, and is now known as the Lovell
Telescope.
Just as an optical collects light, so a radio telescope
collects and focuses radio waves; the name is somewhat
misleading, because a radio telescope is really more in
the nature of an aerial. It does not produce an opticaltype picture, and one certainly cannot look through it;
the usual end product is a trace on a graph. Many people
have heard broadcasts of ‘radio noise’ from the Sun and
other celestial bodies, but the actual noise is produced
in the equipment itself, and is only one way of studying
the radiations.
Other large dishes have been built in recent times; the
largest of all, at Arecibo in Puerto Rico, is set in a natural
hollow in the ground, so that it cannot be steered in the
same way as the Lovell telescope or the 64-metre (210foot) instrument at Parkes in New South Wales. Not all

radio telescopes are the dish type, and some of them
look like collections of poles, but all have the same basic
function. Radio telescopes can be used in conjunction
with each other, and there are elaborate networks, such
as MERLIN (Multi-Element Radio Link Interferometer
Network) in Britain. Resolution can now be obtained
᭡ The Very Large Array, in
New Mexico, is one of the
world’s premier radio
observatories. Its 27
antennae can be arranged
into four different Y-shaped
configurations. Each
antenna is 25 m (82 feet) in
diameter, but when the
signals are combined
electronically it functions as
one giant dish, with the
resolution of an antenna
36 km (22 miles) across.

Type of

Gamma rays

X-Rays

Ultra-

radiation

Wavelength

violet

0.0001

0.001

0.01

0.1

1

10

100

Visible

down to 0.001 of a second of arc, which is the apparent
diameter of a cricket ball seen from a range of 16,000
kilometres (10,000 miles).
The sub-millimetre range of the electromagnetic
spectrum extends from 1 millimetre down to 0.3 of a
millimetre. The largest telescope designed for this region
is the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) on Mauna
Kea, which has a 15-metre (50-foot) segmented metal
reflector; sub-millimetre and microwave regions extend

down to the infra-red, where we merge with more ‘conventional’ telescopes; as we have noted, the UKIRT in
Hawaii can be used either for infra-red or for visual work.
The infra-red detectors have to be kept at a very low
temperature, as otherwise the radiations from the sky
would be swamped by those from the equipment. High
altitude – the summit of Mauna Kea is over 4000 metres
(14,000 feet) – is essential, because infra-red radiations
are strongly absorbed by water vapour in the air.
Some ultra-violet studies can be carried out from
ground level, but virtually all X-rays and most of the
gamma rays are blocked by layers in the upper atmosphere, so that we have to depend upon artificial satellites
and space probes. This has been possible only during
the last few decades, so all these branches of ‘invisible
astronomy’ are very young. But they have added immeasurably to our knowledge of the universe.

᭢ The electromagnetic
spectrum extends far
beyond what we can see
with the human eye. These
days, gamma-ray, X-ray and
ultra-violet radiation from
hotter bodies and infra-red
radiation and radio waves
from cooler are also studied.

Infra-red

Radio waves

1000 nanometres

1

10

100

1000 microns
1

10 millimetres
1

10

100 centimetres
1

Radiated by
objects at a
temperature
of…

10

100

100,000,000
10,000,000
1,000,000
100,000

10,000

1000

100

10

1 degrees above absolute zero

21

1000 metres


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ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE

Rockets into Space
he idea of travelling to other worlds is far from
Tsatirist,
a Greek
new. As long ago as the second century

Lucian of Samosata, wrote a story in which a
AD

▲ Tsiolkovskii. Konstantin
Eduardovich Tsiolkovskii is
regarded as ‘the father of
space research’; it was his
work which laid down the
general principles of
astronautics.

▲ Goddard. Robert
Hutchings Goddard, the
American rocket engineer,
built and flew the first
liquid-propellant rocket in
1926. His work was entirely
independent of that of
Tsiolkovskii.
▼ The V2 weapon. The V2
was developed during
World War II by a German
team, headed by Wernher
von Braun.

22

party of sailors passing through the Strait of Gibraltar
were caught up in a vast waterspout and hurled on to
the Moon. Even Johannes Kepler wrote ‘science fiction’;

his hero was taken to the Moon by obliging demons! In
1865 Jules Verne published his classic novel in which the
travellers were put inside a projectile and fired moonward
from the barrel of a powerful gun. This would be rather
uncomfortable for the intrepid crew members, quite apart
from the fact that it would be a one-way journey only
(though Verne cleverly avoided this difficulty in his book,
which is well worth reading even today).
The first truly scientific ideas about spaceflight were
due to a Russian, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovskii,
whose first paper appeared in 1902 – in an obscure
journal, so that it passed almost unnoticed. Tsiolkovskii
knew that ordinary flying machines cannot function in
airless space, but rockets can do so, because they depend
upon what Isaac Newton called the principle of reaction:
every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For
example, consider an ordinary firework rocket of the
type fired in England on Guy Fawkes’ night. It consists
of a hollow tube filled with gunpowder. When you ‘light
the blue touch paper and retire immediately’ the powder
starts to burn; hot gas is produced, and rushes out of the
exhaust, so ‘kicking’ the tube in the opposite direction. As
long as the gas streams out, the rocket will continue to fly.
This is all very well, but – as Tsiolkovskii realized –
solid fuels are weak and unreliable. Instead, he planned a
liquid-fuel rocket motor. Two liquids (for example, petrol
and liquid oxygen) are forced by pumps into a combustion chamber; they react together, producing hot gas
which is sent out of the exhaust and makes the rocket fly.
Tsiolkovskii also suggested using a compound launcher
made up of two separate rockets joined together. Initially

the lower stage does all the work; when it has used up
its propellant it breaks away, leaving the upper stage to
continue the journey by using its own motors. In effect,
the upper stage has been given a running start.
Tsiolkovskii was not a practical experimenter, and the
first liquid-propellant rocket was not fired until 1926, by
the American engineer Robert Hutchings Goddard (who
at that time had never even heard about Tsiolkovskii’s
work). Goddard’s rocket was modest enough, moving for


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EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE

a few tens of metres at a top speed of below 100 kilometres per hour (60 miles per hour), but it was the direct
ancestor of the spacecraft of today.
A few years later a German team, including Wernher
von Braun, set up a ‘rocket-flying field’ outside Berlin
and began experimenting. They made progress, and the
Nazi Government stepped in, transferring the rocket
workers to Peenemünde, an island in the Baltic, and
ordering them to produce military weapons. The result
was the V2, used to bombard England in the last stages

of the war (1944–5). Subsequently, von Braun and many
other Peenemünde scientists went to America, and were
largely responsible for the launching of the first United
States artificial satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958. But by then
the Russians had already ushered in the Space Age. On
4 October 1957 they sent up the first of all man-made
moons, Sputnik 1, which carried little on board apart from
a radio transmitter, but which marked the beginning of a
new era.
Remarkable progress has been made since 1957.
Artificial satellites and space stations have been put into
orbit; men have reached the Moon; unmanned probes
have been sent past all the planets apart from Pluto, and
controlled landings have been made on the surfaces of
Mars, Venus and a small asteroid, Eros. Yet there are still
people who question the value of space research. They
forget – or choose to ignore – the very real benefits to
meteorology, physics, chemistry, medical research and
many other branches of science, quite apart from the practical value of modern communications satellites.
Moreover, space research is truly international.

᭡ Wernher von Braun, who
master-minded the launch
of the first US artificial
satellite, Explorer 1.

Principle of the rocket

The liquid-propellant
rocket uses a ‘fuel’ and

an ‘oxidant’; these are
forced into a combustion
chamber, where they
react together, burning
the fuel. The gas
produced is sent out
from the exhaust; and
as long as gas continues
to stream out, so the

rocket will continue to fly.
It does not depend upon
having atmosphere around

it, and is at its best in
outer space, where there
is no air-resistance.

᭣ Launch of Ulysses.
Ulysses, the spacecraft
designed to survey the poles
of the Sun, was launched
from Cape Canaveral on
6 October 1990; the probe
itself was made in Europe.
The photograph here shows
the smoke trail left by the
departing spacecraft.
᭤ Russian rocket launch
1991. This photograph

was taken from Baikonur,
the Russian equivalent of
Cape Canaveral. It shows
a Progress unmanned
rocket just before launch;
it was sent as a supply
vehicle to the orbiting
Mir space station.

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ATLAS OF THE UNIVERSE

Satellites and Space Probes
f an artificial satellite is to be put into a closed path
Imeans
round the Earth, it must attain ‘orbital velocity’, which
that it must be launched by a powerful rocket; the

▲ Sputnik 1. Launched
on 4 October 1957, by the

Russians; this was the first
artificial satellite, and marked
the opening of the Space
Age. It orbited the Earth
until January 1958, when
it burned up.

▲ Lunik 1 (or Luna 1).
This was the first space
probe to pass by the Moon.
It was launched by the
Russians on 2 January 1959,
and bypassed the Moon
at a range of 5955 km
(3700 miles) on 4 January.

▼ ROSAT – the Röntgen
satellite. It provided a link
between studies of the sky
in X-radiation and in EUV
(Extreme Ultra-Violet);
it carried a German X-ray
telescope and also a British
wide-field camera.

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main American launching ground is at Cape Canaveral
in Florida, while most of the Russian launches have been
from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. If the satellite remains sufficiently high above the main part of the atmosphere it

will be permanent, and will behave in the same way as a
natural astronomical body, obeying Kepler’s Laws; but if
any part of its orbit brings it into the denser air, it will
eventually fall back and burn away by friction. This was
the fate of the first satellite, Sputnik 1, which decayed during the first week of January 1958. However, many other
satellites will never come down – for example Telstar, the
first communications vehicle, which was launched in 1962
and is presumably still orbiting, silent and unseen, at an
altitude of up to 5000 kilometres (3000 miles).
Communications satellites are invaluable in the
modern world. Without them, there could be no direct
television links between the continents. Purely scientific
satellites are of many kinds, and are used for many different programmes; thus the International Ultra-violet
Explorer (IUE) has surveyed the entire sky at ultra-violet
wavelengths and operated until 1997, while the Infra-Red
Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) carried out a full infra-red
survey during 1983. There are X-ray satellites, cosmic-ray
vehicles and long-wavelength vehicles, but there are also
many satellites designed for military purposes – something which true scientists profoundly regret.
To leave the Earth permanently a probe must reach
the escape velocity of 11.2 kilometres per second (7 miles
per second). Obviously the first target had to be the
Moon, because it is so close, and the first successful
attempts were made by the Russians in 1959. Lunik 1
bypassed the Moon, Lunik 2 crash-landed there, and
Lunik 3 went on a ‘round trip’ sending back the first
pictures of the far side of the Moon which can never be
seen from Earth because it is always turned away from
us. During the 1960s controlled landings were made by
both Russian and American vehicles, and the United

States Orbiters circled the Moon, sending back detailed
photographs of the entire surface and paving the way for
the manned landings in 1969.
Contacting the planets is much more of a problem,
because of the increased distances involved and because
the planets do not stay conveniently close to us. The first
successful interplanetary vehicle was Mariner 2, which
bypassed Venus in 1962; three years later Mariner 4 sent
back the first close-range photographs of Mars. During the
1970s controlled landings were made on Mars and Venus,

4
3
1

2

▲ Satellites can orbit the
Earth in the plane of the
equator (1) or in inclined
orbits (2). Polar orbiting
satellites (3) require less

powerful rockets than those
in geostationary orbits (4),
which need to be much
higher at 36,000 km (22,500
miles) above the Earth.

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EXPLORING THE UNIVERSE

and Mariner 10 made the first rendezvous with the inner
planet Mercury. Next came the missions to the outer planets, first with Pioneers 10 and 11, and then with the two
Voyagers. Pride of place must go to Voyager 2, which was
launched in 1977 and bypassed all four giants – Jupiter
(1979), Saturn (1981), Uranus (1986) and finally Neptune
(1989). This was possible because the planets were strung
out in a curve, so that the gravity of one could be used to
send Voyager on to a rendezvous with its next target. This
situation will not recur for well over a century, so it came
just at the right moment. The Voyagers and the Pioneers
will never return; they are leaving the Solar System for
ever, and once we lose contact with them we will never
know their fate. (In case any alien civilization finds them,
they carry pictures and identification tapes, though one has
to admit that the chances of their being found do not seem

to be very high.) Neither must we forget the ‘armada’ to
Halley’s Comet in 1986, when no less than five separate
satellites were launched in a co-ordinated scientific effort.
The British-built Giotto went right into the comet’s head

and sent back close-range pictures of the icy nucleus.
On 22 September 2001 the probe Deep Space 1
passed the nucleus of Borrelly’s comet at a range of
2120 km (1317 miles), and sent back excellent images.
By 2003 all the planets had been surveyed, apart from
Pluto, as well as numbers of asteroids.
Finance is always a problem, and several very interesting and important missions have had to be postponed
or cancelled, but a great deal has been learned, and we
now know more about our neighbour worlds than would
have seemed possible in October 1957, when the Space
Age began so suddenly.

▼ IUE. The International
Ultra-violet Explorer,
launched on 26 January
1978, operated until 1997,
though its planned life
expectancy was only three
years! It has carried out
a full survey of the sky at
ultra-violet wavelengths,
and has actually provided
material for more research
papers than any other
satellite.

᭣ Shuttle launch. In an
outpouring of light visible
hundreds of miles away,
the Space Shuttle Discovery

thunders skywards from
Launch Pad 39B at 01 29h
EDT, 8 April 1993. Aboard for
the second Space Shuttle
mission of 1993 are a crew of
five and the Atmospheric
Laboratory for Applications
and Science 2 (ATLAS 2),
which was to study the
energy output from the Sun
and the chemical
composition of the Earth's
middle atmosphere.

▼ The Chandra X-ray
satellite was launched on
23 July 1999. The main
instruments were a CCD
imaging spectrometer and
high-resolution camera; it
was far more sensitive than
any previous X-ray satellite.

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